Kibo quickly opened his eyes in a panic and noticed he was on his bed. He touched his arms and body and noticed everything was fine. The thought of healing magic quickly raced through his mind, but he felt a weird sense of pressure on his legs. He raised his body and noticed Ayane was resting her head on his legs. Feeling some movement, she lifted her head.
"Kibo? Kibo!" She wept as tears rolled down her cheeks.
'Wait. What? What happened, why is she crying. Are my injuries a lot worse than I'm making myself out to believe?' Suddenly he felt a warm embrace as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I'm so glad you are okay, I thought you were going to die, It was all my fault I shouldn't have encouraged you if you weren't feeling confident, I nearly hurt you because of my stupid words!" She rested her head next to Kibo's and tightened her embrace as she continued to weep.
Kibo became bewildered, and many thoughts crossed his head. 'Why the hell is she so close to me? But I can't really push back a crying girl.'
"I'm fine, I'm fine, I promise, don't worry," Kibo assured.
Kibo slowly pulled her apart from him, and she sat back down on her chair. He saw her wiping her tears with her sleeves until Ryzeu and Ayano appeared. They placed their hands on her shoulders to comfort her.
Kibo panicked and thought, 'What, they were here as well? They might get the wrong idea!'
"You should be grateful. She stayed with you all night even when we got someone to cast healing magic on you. The injuries weren't serious, but you suffered serious head injuries when you crashed headfirst into the wall, but thankfully it's something healing magic can fix pretty quickly. There could be some slight side effects like a headache or dizziness but other than that you will be just fine." Ryzeu explained while having unexplained questions of his own and continued, "How did you go crashing into the walls that fast? No one touched you? Is it a skill?"
Kibo raced through his memories, 'all I remember are hazy moments. But I know my skill leap was triggered. The skill books description said you could jump anywhere between 20ft and 100ft. I must have unconsciously set the max distance to get away from the danger as fast possible.'
He facepalmed himself, realising his incompetence. He had nearly let a mere goblin kill him in the weakest dungeon. 'So much for having a powerful summon. I kept getting ahead of myself and thinking I'm untouchable due to Zana yet one leap nearly killed me.' Kibo continued to shake his head in disappointment and continued to think.
'I got too carried away by this world's atmosphere and the people I have met. I need to stay focused and not get too close to these people. My biggest priority is getting stronger, that's it.'
Ryzeu became surprised by his reaction but didn't press him any further.
"Yes it was a skill I used wrongly, it won't happen again."
"I see, well you shouldn't be apologising to me but to someone else right now?"
Kibo looked up to them confused and thought, who else does he need to apologise too? He scanned his memories and couldn't find anything which would warrant such an action.
Ayano becomes agitated at Kibo's apparent confusion and sighs. She signals to Kibo with her eyes.
He looked to where she was signalling and noticed Ayane, which triggered a memory which he tried his best to forget. Of a time when he was in high school and how he saw a girl, he had recently met crying as she stood beside his bed just like now. A strong wave of emotions washed over him as he tried to suppress them. "This isn't the time to be thinking of the past, I only need to look forward towards the future." he thought to himself as his fist tightened before he snapped back out of it.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ayane, I won't let this happen to me again. Don't worry. I'm a lot stronger than you think." He mentioned with a fake smile and hoped she would buy it.
She returned the smile and replied, "You better not!"
He nervously smiled as he touched the back of his head. 'Why did she overreact so much? We haven't even known each other for longer than a day, and we haven't bonded that much in such a short amount of time either, so why did she cry for me' He kept thinking until he arrived at two conclusions. One was that she was a sensitive girl, and the second was that he reminded her of someone.
Ryzeu sees how everything is back to normal and spoke, "Well, I have to get going with Ayano. We have duties to return too. We will see you guys later."
Ayano patted her sister's head before she turned around and left the room with Ryzeu.
Kibo sighed in relief.
'That's two gone, and now I only need to get rid of her so I can start planning for the next few days.' He looked towards Ayane and noticed she was still staring at him, not in a weird way but a worried yet caring one.
Sigh, 'she won't be leaving anytime soon, I might as well just plan my stuff in my thoughts.'
'For one, the goblin dungeon was a success if it wasn't for my accident. Two, I'm not invincible and to make up for that I need to become stronger and get more summons. However, I can only get more summons in a dangerous dungeon, which brings me back to my original problem.' Kibo kept thinking about it until he realised he needed more skills.
'So where do I get skills in a different world other than dungeons?' He thought about it until he heard Ayane speak up.
"What's wrong? You seem to be deep in thought. Maybe I can help you with something?" She said in a caring tone.
A eureka moment hit Kibo, and he quickly replied, "Do you know where you can get skills but don't have to go inside a dungeon?"
She placed her finger on her lip and thought about it until she remembered. "Hmm… The only place you can buy skill books outside the dungeon is in the guild's store."
"Guild store? Is that inside the guild building?"
"No, it's a few streets away closer to the city's marketplace. Why? Are you looking for a new skill?"
Kibo was reluctant to admit it since he wanted to keep a low profile, but he had a weird feeling it might be okay telling Ayane.
"Yes, I wanted to buy another skill so I can protect myself without relying on my summon."
Ayane smiled at the thought they could go shopping and quickly stood up, "What are we waiting for? Let's go then. I can help you pick a skill book!"
'It will be a hassle bringing her along, but I can't deny that she is more experienced than me in this kind of stuff. After all, she is a Gold-ranked Adventurer, so the benefits outweigh the trouble of bringing her along.'
"Alright, let's go."
They both headed downstairs, and Kibo noticed he hadn't seen cat ears anywhere and nor does he know her name.
Unknown to Kibo, she was hiding in the other room due to her suspicions of the relationship between Kibo and Ayane. This was caused by Ayane who had stayed in the same place all night even though Kibo was healed pretty quickly. Not wanting to intervene while Ayane was still there she waited until she could catch Kibo alone later in the day.
They both left the Inn, and as they walked towards the Guild Store, he realised he had become more comfortable with this city and the different types of people who live here. And he wondered if that was more of a good thing or a bad one. Lost in his thoughts, he continued to follow Ayane from behind.
[Capital City Fialis, Guild Store]
They had entered the store and inside were a few guards protecting the shop. It was a well-protected building, but it made sense to Kibo since they sold skill books. 'Normally, stores have something on display at entry, but this was just an empty room with a desk along with a bell on top of it.' He thought.
Ayane walked forward and pressed the bell, a few moments later, a man who seemed to be in his middle ages appeared, he was well dressed and maintained a clean beard.
"Lady Ayane, it is a pleasure to have you with us again." He bowed.
He noticed she came with someone and instructed both of them to follow him to one of the VIP rooms.
'Oh, this is pretty fancy' Kibo thought as he looked around. 'Ayane is considered a VIP probably one of the privileges of becoming a Gold-ranked adventurer.'
Once they had arrived into the room, they both sat down onto the soft couch. The shopkeeper did not sit down out of respect for Ayane and asked, "Are you here for new equipment, my lady?"
"No, I am looking for a skill book for my friend, could you recommend some for him?"
"Of course, your guest is my guest. May I know what class and rank he is?"
"He is a summoner who is new to the adventuring world." Which subtly indicated his rank was bronze.
The man's eyes widened, knowing there is another summoner, and he is not from the military. Many thoughts crossed his mind, but he quickly collected himself and replied, "I see, well, I will head to the back and try to select skill books which would best fit his role."
A short while later the man returned and placed three skill books onto the table in front of Kibo.